This time, God favored Li Qiufan, and he ran to the open space accurately.
After passing the open space, he continued to run forward without stopping. After running about eighty steps, Li Qiufan gave the order: "Throw the grenade backwards! Quick!"
After hearing this, everyone pulled the safety catch, threw the grenade back, and then continued to run wildly.
Due to the burning time of the ignition device in the grenade and the speed of the Japs' pursuit, the first batch of Japs stepped into the open space just in time for the grenade to explode. For a time, the dazzling fire light illuminated the entire night.
Over at the 22nd Regiment's position, Lao Ma and the entire artillery battalion were waiting for Li Qiufan's signal. Suddenly, an explosion occurred in the direction they were looking at, and flames burst out.
"put!"
The moment he saw the explosion, Lao Ma gave the order directly.
As the words fell, the soldiers standing behind the three infantry cannons pulled the ropes in their hands, and shells were also put into the barrels of the sixteen mortars.
"Boom boom boom..."
For a time, the open space was bombed into a hell on earth, and the shells fell into the pile of chasing Japanese soldiers. In an instant, the sky was filled with wailing and corpses were everywhere.
After the shelling ended, only two hundred of the more than a thousand Japanese soldiers ran back, while the rest stayed in the open space forever.
Li Qiufan's side also suffered heavy casualties. There were more than 400 people when he went there, but only a little over 200 were left when he returned to the battlefield, and another 200 brothers were sacrificed.
"Qiu Fan, was it successful?"
Zhao Gang asked eagerly when he saw Li Qiufan bringing people back.
Li Qiufan nodded towards Zhao Gang, but he was not too happy.
Zhao Gang was happy at first when he saw Li Qiufan nodding, and then his expression darkened when he saw the more than two hundred people behind him.
"I'm going to take a rest. The Japs won't attack tonight."
Li Qiufan patted Zhao Gang on the shoulder, then walked aside and fell asleep directly leaning against the trench.
When Li Qiufan woke up, it was already past four in the morning, and there was already a glimmer of light in the sky.
Li Qiufan stood up and stretched, then leaned out of the trench and looked at the Japanese position.
"Qiu Fan, you're awake."
Zhao Gang's voice sounded behind Li Qiufan. He had been staring at the position all night and he hadn't rested yet.
"Old Zhao, go get some sleep, I'll just keep an eye on you."
Li Qiufan looked back at Zhao Gang and found that he was a little tired.
"Brother, brother! There's something wrong with the devils and devils opposite!"
While the two were talking, Heizi ran over in a hurry.
"Huh? What's going on?"
Since Li Qiufan was at the rear of the position at this time, he couldn't see clearly what was happening on the Japanese position.
"Brother, the brother who was observing from the front said that the Japanese seemed to be packing their things, but they didn't look like they were about to charge."
Heizi described the situation on the front line.
"Packing up, tidy up?"
Li Qiufan murmured, and then ran towards the front of the position.
Arriving at the front line of the position, Li Qiufan found that the Japanese were indeed packing up equipment and materials as Heizi said.
"Is it possible that Lao Li's side is over?"
Li Qiufan had some guesses, but he didn't dare to confirm.
In fact, he guessed it right. Since Lao Li's wife was not caught, they were beaten very hard. The second battalion commander's Italian cannon was almost smoking, and it blasted away the Ping'an County town. The little devils on the opposite side received it. After hearing the news that Ping'an County had been captured, they were ready to retreat.
But Li Qiufan didn't know this, so he decided to wait and see.
After more than ten minutes, the Japanese on the opposite side began to retreat one after another, leaving only the infantry still guarding the position.
"Heizi! Assemble the team for me! Pull up the cavalry company for me too!"
After confirming the Japs' intentions, Li Qiufan knew that Lao Li's side was done, and he could now let go of the fight. After the two sides were exhausted, their strength was almost the same, but Li Qiufan still had a weapon to win, and that was the cavalry. even!
"Brother, what's going on?"
After Heizi gathered his team, he ran back. He originally thought that the Japanese were going to attack, but then he thought something was wrong. If the Japanese attacked, they should defend their position, so how could they assemble their troops.
"The devils are going to run away. I can't let them go so easily. I'm going to eat them!"
Li Qiufan looked at the Japanese on the battlefield and said solemnly.
"Brother, we have less than a thousand people left in total. If we attack now..."
Heizi didn't finish his words, but Li Qiufan understood what he meant. He was worried that the entire team would be thrown into it if the attack was not effective.
"If you are afraid of wolves before and tigers behind, how can you accomplish anything?"
Li Qiufan turned to look at Heizi and said sternly.
Heizi trembled when he heard Li Qiufan's words, and then gritted his teeth and said: "The brave ones will be starved to death, and the timid ones will be starved to death. Damn it!"
Li Qiufan laughed when he saw Heizi's reaction, stretched out his hand and patted his shoulder: "Don't worry, brother, even if you die, my brother will be with you on the way to hell."
"Order! The artillery battalion adjusts its shooting at Zhu Yuan, targeting the Japanese position, and fires a salvo in five minutes!"
"The cavalry company takes a roundabout route and surrounds the enemy's rear!"
"Anyone else who can still hold a gun will follow me and rush forward as soon as the cannon fires, and slaughter the idiots on the other side!"
Li Qiufan came to all the soldiers and gave the order to attack.
When five minutes were up, Lao Ma led the artillery battalion to fire the offensive cannon. Three 92 infantry cannons and sixteen mortars dumped all the ammunition in the shortest possible time.
"Corpser, blow the charge horn!"
Li Qiufan shouted, and then the charge horn sounded. More than 800 people in the 22nd Regiment launched a charge, and the cavalry company also began to circle towards the rear of the Japanese.
After the losses last night, the Japanese had lost their will to fight. They had received the order to retreat, and they wanted to leave the battlefield as soon as possible.
However, the sudden arrival of dozens of artillery shells caused their position to become chaotic. They never expected that the Eighth Route Army on the opposite side would counterattack.
A rain of artillery fire made the Japanese cover their heads and run around. When the artillery fire stopped, they looked up and saw the advancing Eighth Route Army.
"kill!"
Li Qiufan was the first to rush to the Japs' position. He drew out the machete he carried on his back and chopped down a Japs, making killing sounds from his mouth.
Although they did not have an advantage in terms of numbers, the indomitable momentum of the soldiers of the 22nd Regiment made the Japanese a little scared, not to mention that they were just a group of soldiers who had no fighting spirit.
They were fighting in front of the formation, and the cavalry company also went around. The first thing they saw was the Japanese artillery that had withdrawn from the battlefield, and was retreating with its mountain artillery and infantry artillery.
Seeing this, the cavalry company immediately charged forward. The cavalry fought the infantry. It was a pure one-sided massacre. In a short time, the Japanese artillery was slaughtered. The Japanese never thought that Li Qiufan also hid a cavalry force.
In this way, Li Qiufan, who was on the frontal battlefield, led his cavalry company to form an encirclement, squeezing the Japanese troops from the outside in.
